


good for you

by crispierchip



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: (no actual pregnancy), Age Difference, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, First Time, Knotting, M/M, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Pregnancy Kink, Rimming
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-09
Updated: 2018-01-09
Packaged: 2019-03-02 19:56:39
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 18,709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13325382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crispierchip/pseuds/crispierchip
Summary: Claude is still looking at Nolan, and Nolan doesn’t let himself think twice about it before saying, “I’ll cut you a deal.”Claude looks abruptly interested, one ginger eyebrow raised as he looks up at Nolan. “I’m listening,” he says.Nolan takes a breath, suddenly aware that there’s no going back from his offer. He’s not sure if he’d like there to be. “I’ll prove to you that I’m not the baby alpha you think, and you ask the guys to lay off the jokes."





	good for you

**Author's Note:**

> me, looking at the sinbin: this prompt sure does look good!  
> also me, 20k later: …
> 
> written for [this](https://thesinbin.dreamwidth.org/3790.html?thread=5029326#cmt5029326) sinbin prompt
> 
> one day i will write something with actual plot for this pairing. today is… most definitely not that day ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
> laura had to do so much work on this, from editing and handholding to cheerleading and everything in between, thank you so much, you’re the best <3 also thank you to everyone who was excited, i wouldn't have kept going without you <3
> 
> title from selena

 

Nolan doesn’t actually mind the jokes - not as a rule anyway. He’s honestly used to hearing them from most of the team, even though they make his already red cheeks flush a furious shade and his chest instinctively push out in an outdated display of authority. Naturally, Nolan’s reactions only fuel his teammates enthusiasm. 

Still, Nolan can handle them; it’s only when it’s Claude that it becomes a problem. Claude can unravel Nolan in only a few simple words, and Nolan isn't stupid enough not to know why, but it still gets to him. 

So when Claude says, “Baby alpha is getting a bit barky,” after Nolan misses on the shootout drill, Nolan can’t help the small growl that rises up in his throat, some of it accidentally slipping past his lips.

Nolan’s response cracks Claude up, apparently, makes him double over in laughter as the rest of the team gangs up on Nolan. 

Nolan can easily brush them off, but it’s Claude he can’t stop thinking about because - well, Nolan has a ginormous crush on him and it sure would be great if Claude could stop seeing him as a baby alpha and actually pay some attention to Nolan’s other qualities, such as his prowess.

Of course, Nolan is fully aware of how ridiculous that sounds even in his own head, so he doesn't let any of it slip. He’d rather not give Claude further ammunition to think of him as a dumb alpha who can’t think past his knot, after all.

Still, the jokes won’t stop, and Nolan knows it’s just the team’s way of welcoming him, diffusing the tension from having a new alpha on the team and in the locker room, but he can’t help the way Claude’s gentle mocking riles him up. 

Nolan’s a professional though - or at least he's trying to evolve into one, would even be doing a pretty good job of it if it weren’t for Claude and his easy confidence and Nolan’s stupid crush on him - so he doesn’t bring it up at first. 

He’s not planning on it up either, just suffering through it quietly until his crush evaporates - which he is sure it will, it must, for everybody’s sake - until one night when the guys take it a bit too far. 

They’re at a bar, after a win that feels rare and hard-won, and Nolan’ talking up a girl, a pretty omega that smells like flowers, and the guys keeps coming up to them, one by one, winking at Nolan or pushing him into Bella, and Nolan has had just about enough of it. There’s hoots and hollers coming from the table, and Nolan can tell his face is flaming with it. 

He apologizes to Bella and says he has to go, then stalks over to the table and glares at Claude. He’s sure the guys are taking their cues from him, as always, so when he grits out, “Can I talk to you?” he doesn’t care for Claude’s innocent expression. 

“You have to knock it off,” Nolan tells him, once it’s just the two of them in the hallway next to the restrooms. 

“Knock what off?” Claude asks innocently. 

Nolan heard before he made it to the NHL that Claude didn’t give two shits about dynamics, so he doesn’t try to cower over him or anything like that - he has too much respect for him and he also has a feeling it would backfire on him anyway. Instead he sighs and crosses his arms over his chest defensively. 

“This - the - the jokes,” Nolan says. His face is red, he can tell, and he hates that his skin is so intent on giving all his feelings away.

Claude’s lips curl into a grin. “Did we wound your alpha pride?” he asks, all faux-worried, and Nolan rolls his eyes. 

“It’s not about my pride,” he mutters. 

Claude raises his eyebrows, goading likes always, and Nolan - he and Bella did a couple of shots so he’s a bit tipsy, filled with courage out of nowhere. He tries not to think of this because he thinks it will only make his crush worse, but he looks at Claude now and thinks, decidedly, why not?

Claude is still looking at Nolan, and Nolan doesn’t let himself think twice about it before saying, “I’ll cut you a deal.”

Claude looks abruptly interested, one ginger eyebrow raised as he looks up at Nolan. “I’m listening,” he says. 

Nolan takes a breath, suddenly aware that there’s no going back from his offer. He’s not sure if he’d like there to be. “I’ll prove to you that I’m not the baby alpha you think, and you ask the guys to lay off the jokes,” he says. His heart beats in his throat, in his cheeks, and his palms are sweaty, his stomach heavy with nerves. 

Claude doesn’t even catch on. He frowns. “Prove to me how?” he asks. 

Nolan huffs and then breathes. The step he takes closer to Claude feels monumental. The hand he lays on Claude’s hips even more so. 

Claude does catch on then. Now both his eyebrows are raised, and he’s looking at Nolan with the same expression as before, grinning confidently and like he could give a fuck about Nolan’s pride. “Is that so, rook?” he mumbles. He has to look up at Nolan to meet his eyes but there’s no doubt about who has the upper hand here. 

“Yes,” Nolan says, voice low, too low, and rough. He feels it when Claude shivers, feels it under his hand on Claude’s hip, and it’s such a rush, to know that his voice has an effect - any sort of one - on his omega captain. 

Still, if Nolan thought this changed anything, he was wrong. Claude says, “Think you can handle that?” and Nolan has to swallow, press his fingers into Claude's skin. 

“I know I can,” he says, with a sort of confidence that always seems to disappear when he’s in Claude’s vicinity. 

Claude just smiles wider, mostly predatory. “You’re on then,” he says. 

+

Nolan doesn’t really think about what he’s gotten himself into until the door to Claude’s apartment is shut behind them and then it’s just Nolan and Claude and Nolan has no choice but to think about it. He wants to panic, and he sort of does because he’s wanted this for so long, he doesn’t want to screw it up, but he’s also incredibly aware of everything, of how close he and Claude are, suddenly.

Maybe Claude can see some of that on his face, the wrong some, at least, because he takes a step back, away from Nolan, and says, “It’s okay if you don’t want to do this.” He’s oddly serious, possibly the most serious Nolan’s ever heard him, and it’s throwing him off a little.

“I’ll tell the guys to knock it off anyway,” Claude goes on, earnest, and Nolan doesn’t want that. 

“No, I - I want to earn it,” he says.  _ I want to impress you _ , he doesn’t say, because that would strike too close to home for him. 

Claude smiles again at this, slow and languid where it’s spreading over his face. Nolan takes a breath, tells himself he’s not about to screw this up, and takes a step closer and another one, until he’s got Claude pressed against the door. 

Claude has to look up again, but it doesn’t make Nolan feel any more in control. If anything, it’s knocking him off a bit, and his hands are a little unsteady as he reaches out to rest them on Claude’s hips, the same way he had back at the bar. 

Claude looks down and then up again, meets Nolan’s eyes and moves his hands to Nolan’s shoulders. He waits Nolan out, and Nolan has done this before, but he feels so out of practice, suddenly. He takes another breath, and Claude’s scent is so much like this, heavy and thick and so, so, good. 

Nolan shakes his head through it and then he leans down, slow, too slow, probably, and brushes their lips together, feels his own breath shake as their lips touch. 

Nolan’s half expecting Claude to laugh at him for that but Claude just kisses him back, soft for a beat, two, and then a bit harder, pressing their lips together as Nolan’s fingers dig into his hips. 

“That’s all you got?” he mumbles against Nolan’s lips, and it makes something snap inside Nolan, makes him find the courage he seemingly lost as soon as he stepped foot in Claude’s place. 

It has him smiling, curling his hands under Claude’s thighs and lifting until Claude’s feet are in the air and he’s pressed between Nolan and the door. Nolan is the only thing holding Claude up, now, and he feels it when Claude’s breath leaves him in a rush, when his fingers dig into Nolan’s shoulders, holding on. 

Claude wraps his legs around Nolan’s hips, after a moment, and then Nolan presses against him. He leans in to kiss him, and they’re almost at the same height right now but not really. He has to bend down a bit, and Claude has to look up, and his mouth is warm, when Nolan slips his tongue past Claude’s lips. 

“How about now?” Nolan asks him, and Claude laughs, threads his fingers through Nolan’s hair and grabs a fistful of it, pulls him in for another kiss, which is answer enough for Nolan. 

They kiss like that, and after a while Nolan can feel Claude get hard against him, and he rocks his hips, gentle at first and then then less so, once Claude makes a noise like he wants more. Nolan’s hard, too, has been for the longest time, from Claude and his scent and the fact that they’re pressed together so close. 

Claude can’t really move much, not without Nolan losing his balance, but his hips hitch forward every few seconds, and so they find a rhythm between them, stuttered and slow and good but not good enough. They keep kissing, and Nolan can smell Claude, his scent turning heavy with arousal now, so he pulls back and shoves his nose into Claude’s neck instead, breathes him in. 

Claude makes a noise at that, low and growly, and his legs tighten around Nolan’s hips. He grinds against Nolan and fists a hand in Nolan’s hair to hold his face against Claude’s skin. Nolan prickles a little at that, because he’s not used to being told what to do, not in this setting, but ultimately Claude smells too good so Nolan doesn’t bother fighting it. 

He just lets himself be guided, which is a near first for him, and lets Claude move against him until Nolan’s thighs are shaking with the strain of it. Claude, like he can read this too, mumbles, “Jesus, let me down,” and, “Let’s just get to the bedroom,” when Nolan hesitates. 

Nolan’s half tempted to carry him there, but they played a game and Nolan might be nineteen but he’s also exhausted. He puts Claude down, gently, and pulls back to look at him, takes in his flushed face and his red lips, looks down to take in his hard dick too, tenting his slacks. 

Claude’s smiling again, when Nolan looks up again. He looks put together, in the three seconds Nolan turned away from his face. Nolan just wants to mess him up again. 

“Looked your fill?” Claude asks him, teasing and low, and Nolan - 

“Not at all,” he says, and doesn’t realize how much honesty is packed on it until Claude’s eyes grow wide. 

“Jesus, rook,” he says, rough. 

“Nolan,” Nolan just says, because thinks if they’re gonna do this when Claude should call him by his name and not just acknowledge his status on the team. 

Claude looks entertained by this more than anything. “Sure,” he says. He takes Nolan’s hand and leads him through the living room and down the hall to his bedroom. 

The bed is made, but the floor is messy, and Nolan doesn’t spare it more than a glance, not when Claude is right there, fingers on the buttons of his shirt. He starts undoing them, and Nolan can’t have that, so he walks up to him and takes over. 

His hands are clumsy, with nerves and impatience, but Claude doesn’t seem to mind. He lets Nolan do it his way, and then lets him slip Claude’s shirt off his shoulders and peels off his own undershirt. Nolan doesn’t mean to stare right then but he does anyway, at Claude’s neck mostly, smooth and unmarked and just - so available. 

Still, Nolan knows that’s rude, to think about an omega like that, so he turns his gaze away and hooks his fingers in Claude’s belt, starts undoing that too. He lets his knuckles brush Claude’s erection through his dress pants, and Claude sighs, hips jerking forward. Nolan likes that, likes that Claude is not shy. 

He pushes Claude’s pants and underwear down his hips and then Claude takes a step back to move out of them, toeing off his shoes as he goes. His hands are on Nolan then, a steady, confident weight, a sharp contrast to Nolan’s touches, and Nolan is almost ashamed, because he’s supposed to be the alpha here but instead he can barely talk the tremor out of his own hands. 

Nolan looks at Claude though, and he thinks - maybe he’s not even supposed to be the one calling the shots here. Claude seems more than willing enough to do it, but Nolan is not used to that. He’s only been with omegas before, around his own age mostly, and that was more fumbly but at least more clear, too, because Nolan knew what was expected of him. 

Now, Nolan has no clue. Now, there’s just Claude, with his palm rubbing over Nolan’s dick, his mouth on Nolan’s chest, so close to his neck. Nolan doesn’t think Claude would get closer without permission, and Nolan’s never done this before, but he thinks about it and he - he likes it, the image, the thought of it. 

He chokes on his breath, when he feels Claude’s lips on his collarbone, and his hips jerk, pushing himself into Claude’s hand. Claude chuckles, this breathy, soft thing, and then he shoves his hand into Nolan’s pants and starts jerking him off, tight and dry and too good.

Nolan puts his hands on Claude’s shoulders, holding on, and feels his thighs start to shake, much like they had back in the hallway. He says, “Claude,” and it comes out like a breath. 

Claude keeps kissing him. He asks, “You wanna come like this?” and Nolan remembers his promise, back at the bar, and abruptly steps out of Claude’s reach. Claude looks confused for a moment, but he goes when Nolan nudges him towards the bed, falls back on it when Nolan pushes. 

He’s smiling again, sharklike, as Nolan takes off the rest of his clothes. He takes himself in hand and starts stroking, slow. Nolan looks at him with wide eyes and a hungry mouth, and then gets on his knees on the floor between Claude’s legs. 

Claude’s eyes grow wide, probably with surprise, and Nolan had no idea where that came from but he leans in, starts laying kisses on Claude’s thighs. He’s so close to Claude’s hole like this, and he thinks he can smell his slick, maybe even see it glistering on the side of Claude’s thighs. 

His mouth waters with it, but Nolan wants to start off slow, start off elsewhere, so he looks up and meets Claude’s eyes. Claude lets go of his dick and pushes his fingers through Nolan’s hair instead, just - there, an encouraging weight on Nolan’s head. 

Nolan knows he’s good at this, and he leans in and wraps his lips around the tip of Claude’s dick, starts sucking gently, tasting precome on his tongue. Claude’s hand tightens in Nolan’s hair abruptly, and Nolan makes a sound in his throat, pleased. Claude smiles, then throws his head back when Nolan takes him deeper, slowly starting to work more of him into his mouth. 

He swallows around Claude and works his tongue along the underside of his dick, and Claude moans, not shy at all. He says, “Jesus, you’re good,” and Nolan drinks in the praise like he’s aching for it, which - maybe he is, from Claude. 

“Can you take me deeper?” Claude asks. His voice is rough, his fingers tight in Nolan’s hair. His thigh trembling under Nolan’s arm. 

Nolan nods, starts breathing deeper. He lets Claude push deeper into his mouth, down his throat, and fights down his gag reflex because he just wants to make this good for Claude. 

“Oh my god,” Claude says. He pushes deeper still, pulls out and then moves back in, and Nolan feels tears well up in his eyes, feels his lashes stick together with them. He keeps looking up at Claude, and flushes deeply when Claude starts talking again. 

“You’re into this, huh?” he’s saying, voice casual in a way his words aren’t. Nolan isn’t sure which part of  _ this  _ he’s referring to, but he can feel his face burn in any case, and he chokes on Claude’s dick, hard enough that he has to pull back. 

“Sorry, was that - ” Claude starts, and he sounds worried, so Nolan cuts him off. 

“Really good? Yeah,” he says. He sees Claude breathe out and then smiles at him, thinks he must look wrecked with it. 

Maybe Claude thinks it too, because stops smiling, just curls his hand under Nolan’s elbow and pulls him up, until Nolan is laying on top of him. Claude’s breath leaves him all in a rush, when Nolan lets his weight drop, but his hips keep moving, grinding his spit-slick dick into Nolan’s hip.

“Are you gonna prove it or what?” Claude asks then. He spreads his legs under Nolan, wraps them around his waist, and Nolan’s dick slips between Claude’s cheeks like this. Claude arches into it, and his question is lost on Nolan. 

“Sure,” he says anyway. His hand trails down, a little hesitant, trails between Claude’s legs, and he chokes on his breath once he touches the skin there because Claude is so - he’s so wet. Nolan’s hand slips against his skin with how wet Claude is and suddenly Claude’s slick is the only thing Nolan can smell.

It fills up his nose and his mouth, too, and all Nolan can think as he rubs two fingers over Claude wet hole is how much he’d like to get his mouth on him. He wants to ask, but he thinks - maybe that’d be a bit forward, too personal, so he keeps the thought to himself. 

Listens, instead, for the sounds Claude makes, low and breathy, as Nolan presses a finger into him. The slide is so easy, Claude so loose and wet and Nolan is dying with it. 

“Jesus, you’re so wet,” he can’t help but admit, and Claude just laughs. 

He says, “All for you,” and Nolan feels it like a punch to the gut. It leaves him breathless and stricken, and he leans down to press their lips together, kiss Claude too hard until they're both breathless with it. 

“All for you, alpha,” Claude keeps going, just - casual about it, like he’s not actively ruining Nolan on the inside. 

“Fuck,” Nolan growls, but there are no baby alpha jokes this time, just the exposed column of Claude’s neck as Nolan works another finger into him, and then a third, too fast. Claude chokes on his breath at the stretch, eyes squeezed shut and legs spread so, so wide. 

“You can take it,” Nolan tells him. His voice is deep, deep in the way it rarely gets outside of rut, and Claude shudders. He makes a sound, high in his throat, a whine, and Nolan throbs with how much he wants to get in him already. 

“Are you ready?” he asks, and he thinks Claude isn’t but Claude nods anyway, a little frantic. 

Nolan pulls away, slips out from between Claude’s legs and reaches for his pants. He grabs his wallet and fishes out a condom and Claude doesn’t even comment on it. Nolan’s fingers are clumsy as he slips it on but he manages, and then he taps on Claude’s thigh. 

“Turn around for me,” he says, quiet, gentle, because Claude looks a little crazed around the eyes.

It takes Claude a moment, but eventually he breathes out and does it, gets on his hands and knees and arches his back so, so low. His chest is resting on the mattress and his ass is in the air, and he’s presenting for Nolan. 

Claude’s offering himself up, and Nolan wouldn't dream of saying no. He moves between Claude’s knees and rests one hand on his hip, pulling him back. He takes himself in hand with the other one and looks down as he guides his dick into Claude’s wet hole. 

It’s a sight, Nolan thinks, watching Claude’s hole clench around nothing, but Nolan is all out of patience by now, so he presses and presses until the tip of his dick slips in and then a little bit more. 

Nolan pauses then, because Claude is so quiet, and the lines of his back are trense, his toes curled against the sheets. Nolan knows he’s not small, and he waits Claude out, rubs gentle hands over Claude’s back and sides and then leans down to kiss his way down Claude’s spine too. 

“You’re good,” he murmurs, low and against Claude’s skin. Claude finally makes a noise at that, something quiet but pleased, so Nolan keeps going. “You can take it, for me,” he says, feels Claude’s hole flutter around him as he tries to adjust. 

Nolan starts kissing Claude's shoulders, and then he says, “You’ll be good for me and take my dick, right,” and feels it as Claude chokes on his breath. 

“Alpha,” Claude breathes, and Nolan can’t help the way his whole body jerks at that, his hips with it, pushing himself deeper into Claude. Claude moans, hands fisted in the sheets and back arched impossibly, and Nolan pulls out and keeps kissing him. 

“So good for me,” he continues, because he thinks he’s not the only one starved for praise here. “You’re taking it so well,” he says, pushes back in, a bit further this time, and listens as Claude’s breath shakes with it. 

“Yeah?” Claude murmurs.

Nolan smiles where his lips are pressed into the top of Claude’s spine. “Oh, yeah, baby,” he says, and doesn’t miss the hitch in Claude’s breath. “You like that?” he asks, and pushes even deeper, now buried all the way inside Claude. 

Claude’s shaking all over and when Nolan reaches for him, he finds him leaking, his dick wet with it. “I bet you do,” Nolan goes on, fueled. He wraps his arm around Claude's chest and pulls him up, until Claude’s back is resting against his chest, his ass on Nolan’s hips. 

“You feel so good, baby,” Nolan says. He can press even deeper like this, and he does, his fingers tight around Claude, his dick hard inside him. He moves his hips slow and careful, then goes harder once Claude starts pushing into it. 

Claude’s still shaking, and his dick is drooling all over Nolan’s hand. His skin is red, from his face to his chest and even his dick, and Nolan loves it. He starts jerking him off, tight but wet, and Claude just moans, loud and unashamed. 

“Yeah, come on,” Nolan mutters, because he’s getting there now, but he refuses to come before Claude. “Give it up for me, baby,” he goes on. 

Claude whines, this thing that Nolan can feel against him rather than hear, and he does, goes impossibly tighter around Nolan while he comes all over Nolan’s hand, dick throbbing with it. 

Nolan doesn't stop moving, can’t. He fucks Claude through it gently and then goes a little harder, hips stuttering as Claude’s hole tightens round him, almost as if he’s trying to coax the come out of Nolan. It works, regardless of intent, has Nolan coming inside a condom that he instinctively wishes weren’t there.

They don’t knot, can’t outside their cycles, but Nolan presses his nose into Claude’s neck and breathes him in, deep and uneven, until Claude starts squirming in his lap.

“My legs are getting numb,” he mumbles, prissy, and that’s more like Nolan’s captain. 

The thought makes Nolan laugh. Claude frowns at him, then hisses as Nolan slowly pulls out of him. 

“Are you - ” Nolan tries to ask, but Claude cuts him off. 

“Relax, it’s going to take a lot more than a round with you to take me out of commission,” he says. He leans in to kiss Nolan as is to take away the string of it, and it sort of works. Nolan kisses back, and then collapses down on the bed, pulling Claude with him. 

Nolan gets a little clingy after he comes, so he wraps his arms around Claude and pulls him in, trying to get his fill. Claude tolerates it for a few moments before shifting out of Nolan’s reach and proclaiming Nolan should get going. 

Nolan has no illusions about this or what it means, but he still would rather stay here and sleep with Claude in his arms. “Do I have to?” he asks, looking up at Claude through his lashes. 

Claude rolls his eyes and throws Nolan’s shirt at him. “Yes,” he says. “You need to go home and I need to sleep.”

“You could sleep with me here,” Nolan argues. 

The corners of Claude’s lips twitch. His hair is a mess, Nolan notices now, and he’s still so, so red. He turns around to grab Nolan’s pants and throw those at him too, and the backs of his thighs are glimmering with slick. He looks well-fucked, Nolan decides, and doesn’t bother fighting down the swell of pride rising up in his chest. 

“Or I could sleep alone,” Claude counters.

Nolan sighs. He thinks this is a fight he’s going to lose. “Okay,” he says. “But we’re done with the jokes?”

Claude does smile now. He stalks over to the bed and puts a knee on the mattress next to Nolan, leans in to kiss him on the lips, once. “We’re done with the jokes,” he says, and “Now get out of my bed.”

Nolan does.

+

The thing is, Nolan thought that once would be enough to effectively get it out of his system. It turns out - shockingly - that that is not the case. This gets especially apparent when Nolan is unable to stop thinking about Claude, about the way he had looked and sounded with Nolan’s dick inside him, and about the way his lips had felt against Nolan’s. 

Of course, not only can Nolan not stop thinking about those things, but he can’t stop jerking off to them either, which proves especially distracting when Claude seemingly becomes unable to keep it in his pants. By which Nolan means, Claude starts hooking up - a lot. 

Nolan isn’t sure if Claude had been hooking up all along and Nolan was just too dumb to realize, but he decidedly realizes now. Most times they go out, especially on the road, Claude seems to find a guy to cozy up to, and after a handful of guys, Nolan gets familiar with Claude’s type, which is: big, beardy and alpha. 

Now, Nolan may be two of those things, but he most definitely cannot grow a beard, which - beards are overrated anyway, Nolan doesn’t know why Claude is into them. Nolan in fact doesn’t know what any of those guys have that he doesn’t have - other than a thick beard of course. 

Nolan can’t afford to be territorial about his captain, however, so he keeps his bitterness to himself, and it works, mostly. He just tries really hard not to wonder if Claude lets the bearded guys sleep in his bed or if he throws them out like he did Nolan. Not that Nolan feels wounded by that or anything. 

The worst though by far is when Claude comes to practice or team breakfast next morning smelling definitively of someone else. That’s when Nolan can feel the jealousy seeping out of him, his scent deepening into something threatening even though it’s just TK next to him trying to get his attention. 

Claude, naturally, goes about his day as if nothing is wrong - and why shouldn’t he. Nolan hasn’t shown him something is, not directly at least, and if he wanted to, he has no right. 

Nolan tells himself all this, but he still messes up. 

+

They’re at a bar again, this time in Jersey, and Claude is talking to someone, a guy with a beard as manicured as Claude’s and a good few inches on him. They’re standing close together, leaning into each other, even, and the dude is looking down at Claude, so focused that even Noan can make it out. 

Nolan looks at them and wants to scream. He doesn't. Just waits for Claude to make his way to the bar and finds him there. Claude looks surprised by this development. He looks at Nolan and raises both eyebrows, silently asking him what he wants. 

“Is it just sex?” Nolan blurts out, and later he will most definitely blame it on the minimal amount of alcohol he’s had. 

Claude does a double take. Then his face twists angrily, and he smirks. “Does my sluttiness bother you?” he asks, and it’s entirely obvious that he thinks this is none of Nolan’s business. 

The problem is - Nolan wants it to be his business.  “Because I can do sex,” he goes on, straight to the point. 

All at once, Claude’s face shifts. He looks at Nolan like he understands now and also like he feels a little bit bad for him. Nolan hates that most of all. “Nolan,” he tries, and nothing comes after it. 

Nolan suddenly regrets ever making his move, but - in for a penny, in for a pound. Hopefully. He leans in, close to Claude’s ear, and whispers, “And I bet he won’t be as good.” 

They’re so close, like this, so Nolan gets to feel it when Claude’s breath hitches. It gives him the courage he desperately needs. “I bet I can be better to you than him,” he goes on, voice low, intentionally rough. 

Claude’s breathing is very rough, next to Nolan’s ear. He pulls back, says, “Jesus, buy me a drink first,” and then walks away. 

Nolan is confused for a moment, so he looks through the crowd and sees Claude talking to the guy again for a moment before making his way back to the table. He’s not sure what to think of that, and he can’t buy Claude a drink in Jersey so he gets him a soda instead and hopes it will do. 

It does. Claude sees it and laughs, then shoves Jake out of the booth so Nolan can take his place next to Claude.

“Thanks,” Claude says, smiling at Nolan a little sweet, not like the smirk that usually stretches his lips.

Nolan is stuck staring at that for a moment before he manages to stammer out, “You’re welcome.” The words come out a little awkward, but they’re pressed so close together, from their shoulders all the way down to their ankles, and Nolan can feel Claude breathe, can feel his arm moving as he takes sips from his soda. 

Nolan is entirely too aware of it when Claude’s hand settles on his thigh under the table, and his leg jerks with it. Claude squeezes his thigh muscle. Nolan spends the rest of the outing just - aware of Claude, really, and it drives him crazy. 

He keeps wondering about what this means, if he and Claude are something now, something more than they were before. Then Claude hooks their ankles together and Nolan supposes that settles it. You don’t play footsie with just any teammate, after all. 

+

It feels like too fucking long before they leave, both of them together, or, Claude pushing Nolan out of the booth and Nolan going because it’s Claude doing the pushing. They share an uber back to the hotel, the silence between them a bit unnerving, at least for Nolan, and then take the elevator up to the team’s floor. 

The two of them walk past Nolan’s room and straight to Claude’s, and Nolan’s heart beats in his throat, because last time was a bet but this time is - Nolan isn’t sure what it is, really, he just knows it feels more important than a bet. 

“Change your mind?” Claude asks him, when Nolan just hovers by the door instead of stepping inside. 

“Sorry.” Nolan smiles, takes two steps closer to Claude and shuts the door behind them. Then, because Claude still looks sceptical, Nolan adds, “I definitely wouldn't change my mind about this.”

“Good,” Claude just says. He makes his way to Nolan and then some, until Nolan’s back is pressed to the hotel room wall. Nolan thinks vaguely that he should feel caged, like this, and he does, a little bit, but mostly he loves having all of Claude’s attention on him, having Claude so close him. 

“Because you said a few things, back at the bar,” Claude goes on, voice low. He twists his fingers in Nolan’s hair and pulls his head down, leans in close to his ear. 

“And I want to see if you’re good on them,” he whispers, and Nolan shivers. His knees feel weak, and he wants to hate it, hate Claude’s ability to reduce him to a pile of thoughtless limbs, but mostly he loves that, too.

“Yeah,” Nolan says, a bit stupidly, and leans in to kiss Claude, mostly lips and pressure and then deeper, when Claude parts his lips. 

Nolan wraps his arms around Claude and drags them down to Claude’s ass, pulls Claude closer, as close as they can get. Claude makes a noise against him, and Nolan pulls back to press his nose into Claude’s temple, just - breathe against him for a moment. 

Claude laughs gently, a rumble against Nolan’s chest. “Are you just gonna sniff me or…” he trails off, and Nolan rolls his eyes because he really can’t have a moment of peace here. 

“You’re so grumpy,” he mumbles.

Claude laughs again. He bundles up Nolan’s shirt in his hands and pulls it out of his pants. “You cockblocked me, what did you expect,” he says. 

Nolan pulls back, offended. “I think that only works if you don’t get any tonight,” he says. 

Claude gives Nolan an expectant look. “At the pace you’re going I may as well,” he says. His tone is challenging, and it should ruffle Nolan’s feathers or something, but Nolan is just used to it. He honestly thinks it’s kind of endearing, and isn’t that a thought.

It makes Nolan roll his eyes, then start guiding Claude back towards the bed. “I was just taking my time, but we can do it your way,” he says. He tries to make it sound all serious, but mostly he’s grinning like a fool, so he probably misses by a good amount. 

“Good,” Claude says, which - a single word should really not sound this hot to Nolan’s ears. Really not, but actually yes, and Nolan pushes Claude on the bed and climbs on after him. He leans over Claude and kisses him, their groins pressed together and Claude moving against him, and this is hot too. 

Nolan can feel Claude getting hard under him, and that’s a rush, has him using his teeth a bit more on Claude’s lips. Claude tolerates it for a few seconds before throwing Nolan off and getting on top of him, straddling his hips. He wraps his fingers around Nolan’s wrists and presses them to the mattress, and Nolan can’t help the way he tenses.

Claude can probably feel it too, and then his grips loosens, his thumbs rubbing along Nolan’s wrist bones. Nolan shivers, now, but he still feels caged in a little, and he’s not sure if that’s his dynamic or habbit or whatever, but he tries to fight it down, for Claude. 

“Relax,” Claude tells him, low and soft and right next to Nolan’s ear. His nose rubs along the column of Nolan’s neck, and Nolan’s heart beats in his throat. “I’ll let go whenever you want me to,” he says.

Nolan breathes. He doesn’t want Claude to let go. He wants to be close to him, but he thinks it’s supposed to be the other way around, him holding Claude down. But then again, there’s no one here to tell him that. 

It’s just Claude, and Nolan likes Claude, wants Claude, and he likes this too. Likes the pressure of Claude’s palms on his wrists and the drag of his nose against Nolan’s neck. He breathes out, and the tension leaves his body all at once as he goes lax under Claude. 

“Good,” Claude tells him. 

Nolan flushes, he can feel it, and he has to close his eyes against the force of it. He keeps breathing, deep enough that he can smell Claude's arousal now, the slick leaking out of him. Nolan makes a noise at that, involuntary, and it comes out like a whine. 

Claude chuckles, but it’s not mean. He squeezes Nolan’s wrists and kisses his cheek. “What do you want?” he asks. 

Nolan - he thinks this is so mixed up. He’s the one who’s supposed to be asking Claude that, but it’s just too easy to get lost in Claude’s question, thinking about everything that he wants. He wants to touch Claude, wants to fuck him, look at him. Mostly he wants to taste him, because he didn’t get to that last time and it’s kind of messing with his head. 

He blurts out, “I - I want to eat you out,” and opens his eyes to take in Claude’s reaction.

Claude’s eyes slip shut, and his hips jerk, pushing his ass back onto Nolan’s hard dick. He says, “Jesus, Nolan,” and Nolan loves the sound of that, the sounds of his name coming from Claude’s mouth in this context. 

“Can I?” he presses. “I’d make it so good, Claude, I really would,” he says. Listens as Claude’s breathing turns unsteady, shaky. 

“Oh my god,” Claude mutters, and then he’s getting up, taking off his clothes hastily before climbing back on the bed. He kneels above Nolan, and he’s so close. Nolan wants to reach out so he does, puts his hands on Claude’s hips and holds on. 

“I want to sit on your face,” Claude says, matter of fact but also not. Nolan’s never done that before, doesn’t know how he’d feel with that little control in his hands, but there’s something in Claude’s voice, something almost shy that makes Nolan nod too many times. 

“Go for it,” he says, and gets to see Claude’s lips stretch out into a smile, his face flush a deep red. 

Claude makes his way up the bed, plants his knees on either side of Nolan’s head. They’re so close like this and all Nolan can smell is Claude, and it’s so good. It makes his dick throb, makes it leak against his stomach, and he humps his hips up into nothing. 

Claude slowly lowers himself and Nolan wraps his arms around his thighs, pulls him down when he gets tired of waiting. He might have never done it like this before but the principle is the same and so Nolan applies himself to it.

He licks up Claude’s slick where it has spread over his thighs and slowly kisses his way to Claude’s hole. He didn’t shave this morning and now he’s abruptly glad for it, for the way Claude squirms when Nolan’s sparse stubble drags along the inside of his cheeks. 

He’s glad for the sound Claude makes too when Nolan finally gets his tongue on his hole, low and throaty and better than anything Nolan’s imagination could come up with. Nolan licks over Claude’s hole, tastes his slick and feels how wet he is, how open, almost sloppy with it. 

Nolan still can’t believe he can have this sort of an effect on Claude who holds himself so proudly and then turns to puddle when Nolan gets his tongue inside him. It’s an easy slide, and Claude moans once Nolan starts fucking him with his tongue. 

Nolan keeps going for as long as he can, but he eventually has to pull back and take a breath, regretfully. Claude lifts himself up so Nolan can breathe, and Nolan takes a moment to look up at him, as his flushed skin and the way he’s gripping the bed frame and then goes right back to it.

He uses his fingers this time, too, two of them right away, licking around them, and Claude seems to like that. He threads his fingers through Nolan’s hair and squeezes hard, and Nolan moans against him, too loud for the hotel room walls. 

Claude starts talking then, or, he starts babbling incoherently, and Nolan loves every word that leaves his lips even though they don’t form coherent sentences. He says, “Fuck, you’re so good,” and, “Alpha,” and, “Make me come.” Finally, he says, “Please,” and that’s what Nolan loves most of all. 

He works his fingers deep inside Claude and brings his hand down on Claude’s ass, hard. Nolan feels Claude’s hole clench so tightly then, feels Claude shake above him and realizes Claude is coming. 

Nolan licks him through it, until Claude is trembling. He pulls back, heaving for breath he didn’t realize he needed, and waits for Claude to climb off him. Claude collapses next to him and leans in to kiss him right away and Nolan makes loud sounds against Claude’s lips. 

Claude moves his hand down to Nolan’s dick, wraps sure fingers around it and starts jerking him off, tight and fast, murmuring nonsense the whole time like, “You were so good to me, alpha,” which Nolan’s dynamic side loves too much. 

“Keep going,” he says, and feels more than sees Claude’s smile against his lips.

“Yeah?” Claude asks. “You like hearing how much you pleased me? How hard you made me come?” he mumbles. “Because you made me come so hard, alpha, better than any hook up,” Claude says, and that’s what makes Nolan lose it, squeeze his eyes shut and come hard enough that he sees white spots behind his eyes. 

Claude kisses him though it, strokes him gently until Nolan is shying away from it and then rests it on Nolan’s hip instead. They breathe together, and Nolan’s heart slowly comes down from it. 

“Are you gonna kick me out again?” Nolan asks, voice low because his neck feels hoarse. He licks his lips and tastes Claude. 

Claude laughs softly. “You can’t stay here,” he says. His eyes are shut and he’s smiling, and he looks so good. 

Nolan’s stomach grows inexplicably tight. “So you are,” he says. It doesn’t come accusatory or anything and for that Nolan is glad. 

“You have a roommate,” Claude just says. He sounds sleepy. 

“So if we were in Philly you wouldn't ask me to leave,” Nolan presses. 

Claude sighs. He opens his eyes and looks right at Nolan. “Maybe,” he says, smiling crookedly. 

Nolan thinks Claude is insufferable. He likes it too much. “Liar,” he says teasingly. 

Claude chuckles. “Go sleep,” he says, “And let me sleep too.”

Nolan hums. He leans in and kisses Claude once, just with his lips. “We’re doing this again,” he says, surprisingly himself with how confident it comes out. 

Maybe Claude is surprised too, because he looks at Nolan for the longest time. Then he just smiles. “You got it,” he says. “Now I really do need to sleep.”

Nolan huffs but gets up. “Old man,” he mumbles. 

“I heard that,” Claude mutters. He curls up on his side and drags the covers over his shoulders. 

“It’s not a secret,” Nolan counters, and Claude wakes up enough to throw a pillow at him. 

+

Nolan might talk a big game to Claude, but he doesn’t actually approach him about this particular matter again. It’s not like he has much time to, anyway. Most of his time is spent agonizing over the fact that he’s not scoring, and the rest of the time he’s just hoping he doesn’t get injured again. It’s not a great time all around. 

He gets a bit lost in his own head, and Provy tries to cheer him up, takes him out on dinners with TK and Ghost and none of them make any crude dynamic related jokes which Nolan knows must be quite a challenge. He appreciates the effort, nonetheless, but it doesn’t really change the fact that he’s playing twelve minutes a night and can’t buy a point. 

Claude takes notice too, takes Nolan aside after practice and asks him if he has any plans for lunch. Nolan doesn’t, so he drives with Claude to Claude’s apartment, prepares himself for Claude’s peptalk. 

It goes about as Nolan expected. There is a lot of talk about expectations and getting used to the pace of the game, but Nolan bets that Claude’s rookie season wasn’t this bad. Still, he nods along to what Claude says, even though he’s sure he’s not fooling Claude in the least.

Eventually Claude has enough of it. He takes Nolan’s plate and sets it on the table, then swings a leg over Nolan and straddles him. Nolan’s eyes grow wide, but he doesn’t hesitate to set his hands on Claude’s thighs. “What is this?” he asks, but he’s smiling, now. 

“Me distracting you with sex, obviously,” Claude says easily. He wraps his arms around Nolan’s neck and lets his weight rest on Nolan’s thighs, getting comfortable. “Since you refuse to listen to me.”

“Hmm,” Nolan hums. “Do you do this with every guy going through a rough patch?” he asks.

Claude looks at Nolan like he’s stupid. “No,” he says. He curves his hand over Nolan’s cheek and tilts his face up, leans down to bring their lips together. 

It’s gentle, and Nolan’s heart skips a beat in his chest. He kisses Claude back and slips his hand under Claude’s sweater, spreads his fingers over Claude’s waist. Claude’s skin is warm and his lips are too, where they’re pressed against Nolan’s. 

It starts chaste and stays chaste for a few minutes, but then Claude starts moving against Nolan, his tongue slipping into Nolan’s mouth, and Nolan is nineteen, it doesn’t take much to get him there. 

He spreads his legs so Claude is more comfortable and drags Claude’s sweater up and up, until Claude has to pull back and take it off. Claude has a bruise on his side, yellowing and long, and Nolan settles his hand over it lightly. Claude shivers anyway, lips parting against Nolan’s. 

“Wanna move to the bedroom?” he pulls back to ask. 

Claude’s hands are still framing Nolan’s face, and Nolan blinks lazily at him. He doesn’t want to move, but a bed would better. “Sure,” he says. 

Claude climbs off him and takes Nolan’s hand, links their fingers together. He walks Nolan to the bedroom even though Nolan knows where it is and kisses him there, too, deeper now. His hands are on Nolan’s hoodie, peeling off him, and then on Nolan’s jeans, working them open. 

Claude pushes Nolan back on the bed once he has him naked, and pauses to take off his own jeans. Nolan goes up on his emblow to watch, and Claude is not graceful, exactly, but watching him hard and flushed still makes Nolan’s mouth water.

Claude sees Nolan watching but doesn’t bother putting on a show, just kicks his jeans aside and climbs on the bed. He pushes Nolan’s legs apart and settles between them, and Nolan shudders. 

Claude leans over him, and they’re not touching much, just the backs of Nolan’s thighs on Claude’s legs, but Nolan feels exposed anyway. He’s not used to this position, and when Claude moves down their chests touch, too, their stomachs. 

It’s a bit distracting but not enough, so Nolan is exceedingly aware of how Claude’s holding his legs spread, aware of all the other placers Claude could touch him. He shivers again, this thing that has his body jerking, and then Claude is kissing him, distracting him even more. 

Part of Nolan wants to push Claude off him, and the rest of his just feels awkward. But Nolan feels how hard Claude is against him, and he thinks there must be something in this that’s doing it for Claude. 

Claude runs his hand down Nolan’s side, and that makes Nolan shudder too, all over. Claude drags his hand down to Nolan’s hip, then his thigh, hitches Nolan’s leg higher around his waist. Everything slows down. Nolan can feel Claude’s hand on his ass, then between his legs, and everything suddenly feels so fast.

“I’ve never - ” Nolan blurts out, but cuts himself off before he can explain. There is just something about saying it that leaves him feeling vulnerable, but Claude gets it anyway. 

He asks, “Do you want to?” and Nolan doesn't know what to say to that. Nolan’s only been with omegas before, and none of them ever expressed any desire for this. More than that, Nolan’s never thought about it, though, upon closer inspection, that all seems a little juvenile now.

“Uhm,” he says, and he sounds so uncomfortable. Claude kisses his cheek. Nolan asks, “Do  _ you  _ want to?” because it would help, he thinks, if he knew Claude was into this. 

“I want  _ you _ ,” Claude just says, and Nolan - that settles it for him. 

“I don’t know if I’m gonna like it,” he still says. 

Claude only shrugs, Nolan can feel it. “That’s okay,” he says, and, “We can go slow.”

Nolan feels his face heat up at that but he nods, twice, and lets his legs fall open farther, until he can feel the stretch in his hips. He clings to Claude’s shoulders but Claude just leans down and kisses Nolan, keeps kissing him until Nolan’s lips feel raw with it and he’s stopped holding himself quite so tightly. 

Claude smiles then, like he can feel the difference. He kisses Nolan’s cheek and pulls back. “Relax, you just don’t have the conventional biology for this,” he says, when Nolan gives him a questioning look. 

Before Nolan can begin to parse that out, Claude has stretched to the bedside table and grabbed a bottle of lube. “Oh,” Nolan says, once he sees it. Everything feels very real, all of a sudden, and Nolan finds himself wondering about how having Claude inside him will feel, if it will be as good as fucking him. 

Nolan can’t imagine it will, just because fucking Claude feels so good, but then Claude is rubbing his slicked up fingers against Nolan’s hole and Nolan is too busy struggling to breathe to think about much. 

“Okay?” Claude’s asking him, and Nolan hasn’t realized he was so sensitive there. He nods, then tilts his head up so he can meet Claude’s lips and kiss him instead. 

Claude makes a noise against Nolan’s lips, and his fingers slips past Nolan’s rim, just a little. Nolan misses a breath again, and Claude slows down impossibly further, waits Nolan out before he starts moving his finger. 

It feels like a lot, is Nolan’s general thought, and it’s only a single finger; he doesn’t know how he’ll be able to take Claude’s dick. The thought makes him tense again, and Claude pulls his finger out, kisses Nolan harder. 

“Say something,” Nolan mumbles against Claude’s mouth. 

Claude smiles. He doesn’t miss a beat before asking, “What do you want me to say?”

It’s teasing, the way it comes out, and Nolan isn't sure he’s supposed to answer. Claude keeps going anyway. 

“Wanna hear about how good you look?” he asks, and Nolan knows it’s rhetorical now. He feels Claude’s finger pushing inside him again, and doesn’t fight it. 

“Wanna hear how bad I want to get inside you?” Claude continues. “Because I do,” he says. He starts moving his finger in and out of Nolan and is too busy listening to whatever slipping out of Claude's mouth to bother tensing. 

“Keep going,” he says, surprising himself with how rough his voice sounds. 

Claude laughs softly, his breath puffing against Nolan’s shoulder. “You have no idea how you look,” he says, “You’re so red right now, I bet you’re going to sound so good with my dick inside you,” Claude keeps going. 

Nolan chokes on a moan, because Claude is just so - he’s so matter-of-fact about it, like he may as well be talking about the weather. Nolan both envies and loves his cool. 

“You think you can take two for me?” Claude asks.

Nolan nods, and then Claude’s pushing in with two fingers instead of one. It hurts a little, is Nolan’s first thought, the stretch of it, but Claude has used to much lube that there’s no drag. Nolan clenches down on Claude’s fingers anyway, gets out a, “Sorry,” as he wills himself to relax again. 

Claude kisses Nolan’s cheek, his flush, before finally pressing their lips together. “You’re good,” he says, “You’re doing so good for me.” 

Nolan can’t help the sound that slips past his lips at that, but judging by Claude’s sharp inhale, Claude wouldn't want him to anyway. “Yeah,” Nolan says, and, “For you,” which makes Claude groan. 

Nolan’s face is burning, and then Claude curls his fingers and Nolan’s dick throbs, his hips jerking to get closer. “Fuck,” he breathes, eyes wide and looking down between them. 

Claude smiles and does it again, harder, and Nolan throws his head back and leans into it. He feels it when Claude adds more lube, then another finger, and doesn’t fight it, just - takes it. Claude starts fucking him with three fingers and Nolan takes that too, can’t not, when it feels this good. 

“Does it feel good?” Claude asks, though he sounds smug rather than curious. 

Nolan laughs. “Fuck off,” he mutters. He spreads his legs farther and lets Claude’s fingers move inside him. He moves his hand down to his dick and starts stroking himself off at the same time, and that - it can definitely get him there. 

“You should - now,” he says honestly. 

“Yeah?” Claude murmurs. He pulls his fingers out and reaches for a condom, and Nolan feels so open, suddenly, hole clenching around nothing. The feeling makes him whine, and he’s embarrassed that noise came out of him but not enough to do anything about it. 

He says, “Move it,” to Claude, and Claude chuckles. He finally gets the condom on and hooks his arm under Nolan’s leg. He lifts it up, spreading Nolan up, and Nolan hadn’t thought about how it would feel to have Claude see him like this. 

He doesn’t have to now either, because Claude is pressing against him, and suddenly he feels huge. Nolan’s hand freezes on his dick, and he looks down between them, can see Claude’s hand between his own legs, guiding himself in. He takes a breath.

It takes three tries because Claude’s dick keeps slipping, and Claude goes slow but it’s still a lot. The pressure of it has Nolan squeezing his eyes shut, his hand going tight around his dick before he lets go of himself and fists the sheets instead. 

“Breathe,” Claude reminds, and Nolan wants to laugh because that’s a stupid instruction. It helps anyway. “There you go,” Claude praises him. Nolan’s face burns with it, but that helps too. 

Claude pulls out, pushes back in and waits for Nolan’s hands to go lax around the sheets before moving again. He’s going so fucking slow, and Nolan can feel him everywhere, inside him and around him and on top of him and it’s suffocating but warm too. 

It has Nolan opening his eyes and threading his fingers in Claude's hair, pulling him down so they can kiss again. Nolan feels it when Claude’s breath shakes, like this, and that makes him so proud, that he’s making Claude feel good. 

“Fuck me,” he says, already breathless with it. 

Claude looks at him for a moment, and then he pulls out, pushes back in all the way. It pushes Nolan’s breath out of him almost violently, and then Claude does it again and again, setting up a rhythm, slow but hard. 

Nolan doesn’t feel much of anything at first, but then Claude tilts his hips, pushes Nolan’s leg up on his shoulder, and Nolen gets it then. Claude’s dick presses inside him, and Nolan chokes on his breath, has to start jerking himself off again. 

“You like it?” Claude asks.

Nolan laughs, a breathless thing, because his dick is leaking on his stomach and he’s burning all over, of course he likes it. “What do you think?” he mutters, and can’t help but moan after Claude moves a little harder, the slide of his dick rougher inside Nolan.

“I think you love it,” Claude says easily. 

Nolan means to say something smart in response but instead all that comes out is, “Please,” which about sums up his current situation. 

Claude doesn’t laugh. He says, “Yeah, go for it,” and Nolan’s hand moves faster, then harder until he’s coming on his own stomach, going tight around Claude.

Claude stops moving, leans in to kiss Nolan instead. His mouth is soft, and Nolan kisses back, tries to make his mouth coordinated and probably fails. He hisses when Claude tries to move again, surprisingly sensitive, and Claude pauses. He pulls out slowly, strips off the condom and starts jerking himself off, hard and fast.

Nolan’s still hazy from coming, but he knocks Claude’s hand out of the way and starts stroking him. “Please,” Claude says, and Nolan doesn’t know what he’s begging for but he says, “Yes,” anyway. He speeds up his hand and it doesn’t take long before Claude is coming, his face buried in Nolan’s shoulder and fingers digging into Nolan’s thigh. 

Claude lets his weight drop on Nolan after, and it’s a bit disgusting because they’re going to get stuck together but mostly annoying because Nolan’s leg aches. Still, he rarely gets to have this so he doesn’t say anything, pushes his discomfort aside and runs careful hands over Claude’s back instead as they come down from it.

Claude does eventually move though, and Nolan can’t help the groan of relief that leaves his mouth. Claude gives him a worried look, asks, “Everything okay?”

Nolan stretches out his leg and winces. “Yeah, I’m just not that flexible,” he says. 

Claude huffs. “You’re nineteen,” he counters, and he’s smiling. 

“Still, I have joints,” Nolan mutters. 

Claude rolls his eyes. He moves to lie on the bed next to Nolan, even shifts a little bit closer to him, until their shoulder touch. Nolan thinks he shouldn't lean into but does anyway.

“So,” Claude says after a moment. “Was that okay?” he asks, and he sounds - he doesn’t confident, not at all. 

Nolan smiles. He turns his head to the side and meets Claude’s eyes. “Yeah,” he says, “It was great.”

Claude smiles too. He leans in and kisses Nolan on the lips. “I’m glad,” he says. “And I hope it was sufficiently distracting?”

Nolan hums, pretending to think about it. “I don’t know about that,” he says. “Maybe you’ll have to try again.

Claude huffs. “I’m almost thirty, that’s not happening,” he says. He grins and continues, “If you want to nap though and see about after, that might work.”

Nolan’s smile widens, and he leans into Claude. “I think that can be arranged,” he says. 

+

They shower separately, Claude first and Nolan after him, but then go to bed together. Nolan kind of wants to cuddle, but he doesn't know how Claude feels about that, and Claude is already making an exception in letting Nolan spend the afternoon, so Nolan would rather not push his luck. 

Nolan sticks to his side of the bed, and lets out a breath when Claude shifts closer to him and then some, until they're almost curled together. 

“This okay?” Claude asks sleepily, and there's not a day that goes by that Nolan doesn't envy his confidence. He wonders if it's an age thing or a Claude thing, and decides it's a little bit of both, maybe. 

“Yeah,” he says. He leans further into Claude, his back to Claude's chest, and feels Claude rest his arm over Nolan's side. 

They sleep for a bit, until Claude's alarm goes off, but they don't end up having sex again that day. Claude puts on a movie instead, sets up some snacks for them, and asks Nolan if he wants to stick around. 

Nolan has a crush on Claude but he likes spending time with him too, so he settles in on Claude's couch and eats his popcorn. Claude joins him, his arm thrown over the back of the couch, and Nolan doesn't know if this meant for him or what but he leans into it anyway. 

Halfway through the movie, Nolan feels Claude's fingers in his hair, and he moves to rest his head on Claude's shoulder. It's not particularly comfortable - the height difference messes Nolan's neck up - but Nolan wouldn't dream of moving. 

They watch the rest of the movie like that, and then Claude enlists Nolan's help with dinner. Nolan is pretty useless at it, he's not going to lie, but Claude doesn't seem to mind. He has Nolan watch the water until it boils and then stir the pasta while he makes the chicken.

“How have you survived alone so far?” he asks, when Nolan almost burns himself trying to drain the pasta. 

Nolan rolls his eyes and says, very seriously, “Takeout.”

Claude buffs like that's not up to this standards even though they had some just today. “That's unnatural,” he says. 

Nolan narrows his eyes. “Well, maybe you’ll just have to feed me more often then,” he says. 

Claude’s eyes brighten, Nolan is pretty sure of it. “I might, if you’re good,” he tells him. 

Nolan’s licks his lips. “I’ll hold you to that,” he promises.

+

December rolls around, and their record starts improving, miraculously. They win more than they lose, and Claude apparently decides it’s time to turn into a walking, talking Christmas elf. He plays christmas music in the locker room sometimes before Simmer shuts him down and wears ugly Christmas sweaters that Nolan finds adorable.

Claude makes christmas cookies too, which he enlists Nolan’s help with. He invites Nolan to his house after practice, and Nolan won’t lie, he thought this was about sex. He tells Claude as much, when Claude gives him a questioning look.

Claude rolls his eyes and shoves an apron in Nolan’s hands. “Some things are more important than sex,” he says, very seriously. There is christmas music playing.

Nolan thinks sex - and sex with Claude in particular -  is pretty up there on his list of priorities. He says, “Christmas cookies are more important than sex?” and it comes out like a question. 

“Yes,” Claude says evenly. 

Nolan thinks he’s lost this fight, so he takes off his coat and puts on the apron. He goes where Claude tells him too, which is over the stove to watch the butter melt in a pot. Nolan would get offended that Claude apparently doesn’t trust him for more than that but, well, he doesn’t trust himself either.

After the stove, Claude has Nolan mix together the butter and the sugar for the cookies using a hand mixer. Nolan nods because he can’t see a way of messing that up, but two minutes into it Claude is sighing and shaking his head.

“What?” Nolan squawks, defensive. 

“You’re not very good at this,” Claude decides. 

Nolan could have told Claude that himself, but he still feels his face heat at having disappointed him. Nolan sometimes really hates his traitorous dynamic. 

“Move your hand at the same time,” Claude tells him, and his voice sounds a little gentler now. “Circular,” he says. 

Nolan does as Claude tells him, and he can’t see a difference in the mixture but Claude seems happy, so what does Nolan know. “Like this?” he asks, and he’s not asking for praise, except he kind of is. 

Claude grins like he knows it too, and says, “Yeah, you’re doing good,” indulgent. He hums, and continues, “Tell you what, you put some heart into this,” he says, “and I blow you after.”

Nolan hand stutters on the hand mixer, and he turns to look at Claude. Claude is not even looking at him, he’s looking at the mixture, but Nolan can see how he’s smiling, the corner of his mouth quirked up. 

“O - Okay,” he blurts out, and it probably sounds too eager but there’s nothing Nolan can do about that. 

Still, Nolan does try to do his best through the rest of the baking process. He keeps mixing the ingredients Claude adds to the bawl like Claude told him, and follows his instructions to the letter. 

When the mixture is sufficiently blended, Claude lines four pans with baking sheets and has Nolan choose a cookie cutter. Nolan chooses the star and Claude takes the Christmas tree, and then they get to cutting. The batter keeps sticking to Nolan’s cutter, and Claude has to show him how to do it properly, his hands around Nolan’s, his chest against Nolan’s shoulders, and Nolan didn’t even know baking could be this erotic.

“Got it?” Claude asks then, and Nolan got how Claude smells, sugary on top of his own scent. 

He says, “Yeah,” anyway, and mercifully doesn’t screw up more cookie-cutting. 

After all the cookies are cut and placed on the cookie sheet, Claude puts them in the over and sets the timer. He turns to Nolan then, smiles, and then just - he gets on his knees, _ for Nolan _ , in the middle of his own kitchen. 

Nolan’s breath legitimately cuts out of a moment. He looks down at Claude and his thighs start to shake. Claude looks so good. He has to look up at Nolan, and his hand are sure where they’re resting on Nolan’s trembling thighs. 

“Okay there?” he asks, grinning, and what is Nolan even supposed to say to that. 

“Oh, yeah,” he says, and at least it comes out sarcastic.

Claude laughs, leaning in to rest his forehead against Nolan’s hipbone for a moment. Nolan thinks about it, then he reaches out and threads his fingers through Claude’s hair. He says, “You look so good,” and feels more than heard Claude’s breathing shake. 

Claude looks up at Nolan again, and Nolan is getting hard, just from this, just from having Claude on his knees though there’s no ‘just’ about it, not really. Claude’s hands rub over Nolan’s thighs before settling on his belt buckle, undoing it easily, and then Claude is dragging Nolan’s jeans down, just enough to get his dick out. 

Nolan chokes on his breath when Claude takes him in his hand, and then he stops breathing altogether when he feels Claude’s tongue circling the tip of his dick. Claude keeps looking up at him the whole time, and that’s the best part. It has Nolan’s fingers tightening in Claude's hair, has his hips jerking.

Claude finally wraps his lips around Nolan then, as if he needed the physical manifestation of how bad Nolan wants him, and Nolan decides that’s the best part. He has to fight to keep still, as Claude works more and more of his dick into his mouth, and then he can feel the back of Claude’s throat, the wetness of his mouth. 

“Claude,” he says, a breathy sound, and Claude blinks. He holds Nolan’s gaze and swallows around him, taking him even deeper. Nolan moans, a choked-out thing, and tilts his hips forward a bit, can’t help it. 

Claude gags a little, eyes watering, but he doesn’t pull back, just works harder. It drives Nolan crazy. He looks at Claude's mouth, all stretched out around his dick, and sees it red, wet with spit. His chin is wet too, and his eyes the same, and Nolan can’t help it, he closes his eyes and tries to keep it together.

Claude starts moving then, pulling off and getting down again, choking himself on Nolan’s dick, and Nolan is too close. When he opens his eyes again, he sees Claude’s hand inside his sweats, jerking himself off, and that’s a sight, it’s a thought, that Claude likes this enough to jerk off to it.

“Jesus, you’re taking me so deep,” Nolan blurts out, and it’s half wonder half filth, at this point. 

Claude moans like he wants Nolan to keep talking, and Nolan isn’t too coherent right about now but he does. “You’re so good at this, best mouth my dick’s ever had,” he says. Claude chokes almost violently, a throaty moan slipping back his lips that Nolan can feel in his dick, and Nolan runs fingers through his hair. 

“You like that?” he teases. “You like that you’re the best?” he asks, and it’s not like Claude can reply verbally, but Nolan thinks the flush on his cheeks, the sounds he makes, they are answer enough.

It doesn’t really take much for Nolan after that. Claude swallows around him a few more times, and he comes. Claude swallows, choking on some of it, and then Nolan pulls him up and lifts him up onto the counter. He gets his hand in Claude’s sweats, wraps his fingers around his dick, and leans down to kiss him hard. 

Claude keeps making sounds against him, and his mouth tastes like Nolan, his lips warm and wet. His dick is leaking everywhere, and Nolan can smell his slick. If the blowjob hadn’t gotten him off then this surely would have, Nolan thinks, and tightens his hand around Claude’s dick, works him off faster, until Claude is shaking, spilling into Nolan’s hand.

Claude slumps against Nolan after, his forehead against Nolan’s neck, and that feels good too. Nolan rubs his clean hand over Claude’s back, kisses his cheek and his temple and feels like a sap for it. 

Claude doesn’t seem to mind. He leans into Nolan’s kisses, and then sits up and brushes their lips together. “My knees hurt,” he mumbles. 

Nolan settles his hand over Claude’s left knee. “Comes with the age,” he says, but he has Claude go sit on the couch while he busies himself with cleaning up the kitchen. 

After, once the cookies are ready, Claude allows them to eat a few, claiming the rest are for the team. Nolan kind of low-key wants to feed them to Claude, but that’s somewhat archaic, more than a little instinctive, and Nolan thinks Claude wouldn't be a fan of it. He settles for kissing him instead, and that’s pretty good too.

+

Nolan can’t pinpoint the exact moment Claude starts smelling better to him, but they’re sitting close together at Simmer’s house one afternoon in January, and suddenly Claude's scent is the only thing Nolan can smell. He leans into it without even thinking about it but it doesn’t go unnoticed, mostly by Jake, who tells Nolan to knock it off and that he’s being rude. 

Claude is trying to get one up on Simmer on Mario Kart, but he spares a moment to ask, “What was that?”

“Nothing,” Jake says, giving Nolan a pointed look, so Nolan goes to sit somewhere else, as far from Claude as he can get.

If Claude thinks Nolan’s acting weird he doesn't give any indication of it, except for when they’re leaving where he  _ winks  _ at Nolan. Nolan fumbles for something to say and comes up short, and then they’re getting in Claude’s car and the smell is almost suffocating. It’s - it’s sweet, Nolan thinks, and it’s not that Claude smells bitter or anything, usually, but he doesn’t smell quite like this. 

Nolan breathes in and feels something stir in his stomach, something protective and warm and incredibly instinctive. He looks at Claude and thinks that he shouldn’t be driving, that he should be somewhere safe, and a car is definitely not a safe place. He wants to growl, almost, but he holds it down because that wouldn’t be polite. 

Nolan wonders if Claude knows what he smells like, if he knows what his scent is doing to Nolan and his instincts. He looks at Claude’s easy grip on the steering wheel, and thinks there’s no way he knows.

“It’s still early,” Claude says. They’re stopped at a red light and Nolan is trying very hard not to breathe in too deep. He’s mostly failing. 

“Yeah?” he says, and regrets opening his mouth because it’s like he can taste him, taste Claude in the air, and it’s driving him insane. 

“Wanna come over?” Claude asks. He glances at Nolan as he says it, confident, and maybe he does know. 

Nolan doesn’t want to sound too eager, but he still says, “Sure,” sounding like the baby alpha he is. 

Claude chuckles. He pats Nolan’s thigh and says, “Almost there.”

The rest of the drive goes by slowly, but then they’re in Claude’s apartment, and all Nolan can smell is Claude. He waits until the door is shut behind them, and then he follows Claude to the kitchen, grabs his hand and pulls him in so they can kiss. 

“I was going to offer you some water,” Claude mumbles against Nolan lips. 

Nolan tastes Claude’s lips and growls from deep in his chest, hooks his hands under Claude’s thighs and hoists him up onto the counter. Claude lets out a breath, sharp but amused, and how he has the capacity for joking right now is beyond Nolan. 

“I don’t want water,” he says, and even that comes out rough. “You smell - ” he tries, and comes up shot for words. 

“You can say it,” Claude tells him. He bites at Nolan’s lips, teasing, and at least they’re on the same page now. 

Nolan breathes in, tries to understand what Claude is talking about, and then he gets it. He can smell Claude’s arousal in the air, and it smells different, thicker, almost like - “Fuck,” he says. 

“Say it, come on,” Claude keeps on, leaning in to bite at Nolan’s jaw. Nolan shudders, and curls his neck in tightly. 

He pulls back, a little, says, “You smell so - you’re fertile,” his face burning as soon as the words are out, but that’s the only word he has. 

Nolan half thinks Claude is going to make fun of him for it, for his alpha-ness, but Claude only moans. It’s high, almost whiny, and his legs come to wrap around Nolan’s waist, pulling him in. “Yeah?” he says, and maybe Nolan isn't the only getting off on this. 

“Yeah, you’re - you’re ready for it, aren’t you?” Nolan murmurs. He pushes his fingers through Claude’s hair and pulls his face back, meets his eyes. He has no idea where it comes from, when he says, “Say it.”

“I’m ready for it,” Claude says, and, “Alpha,” which never fails to do Nolan in. 

“Fuck,” he mutters. Nolan grew up in a house of alphas and betas, and then everybody in juniors was on suppressants. He had no idea an omega so close to heat would smell like this. “You smell so good,” he says. It comes out a little pleading, but it’s the truth. 

Claude chuckles, breathless. He hops off the counter and takes Nolan’s hand. “Let’s go,” he says. 

“We - it’s okay?” Nolan asks, his inexperience shining through, but Claude doesn’t make fun of him for it. 

“My hormones aren’t strong enough to break through a condom,” he just says. 

Nolan runs out of arguments then, follows Claude to the bedroom and takes off his clothes once they’re there. He sees Claude looking at him from the bed, and he makes his way over, straddles Claude’s thighs and strips him out of his sweater. 

“I really want to fuck you,” he says, quiet. 

Claude looks up at him and smiles. “Have at it,” he says, leaning back on his elbows. 

Nolan’s mouth waters, suddenly, and he climbs off Claude so he can take off his jeans, too. He pushes Claude’s legs apart and settles between them, leans down to kiss him. It’s deep, and Nolan’s tongue is probably too sloppy with spit. 

Claude doesn’t complain. He makes sounds into Nolan’s lips and spreads his legs really wide, and Nolan can taste Claude’s slick against the roof of his mouth. It’s thick and heady, and when Nolan moves his hand between Claude's legs, he finds him slick, so wet with it. 

Nolan moves two fingers through Claude’s slick, gets them wet before pushing them inside him, and they go in so easy. “Jesus, you’re so loose,” he says, and he sounds awed. Idly, he thinks that’s not the kind of thing you’re supposed to say to an omega, but Claude doesn’t take offense. 

He says, “All for you, alpha,” and the sound of his words makes Nolan’s dick throb. 

“Oh, god,” he says. He pushes another finger alongside the first two, and they go in easy too. He pulls them out. “Do you think I could just - ” Nolan takes a breath, tries to talk himself out of blushing. “Push right in?” he asks, finally, and Claude moans. 

“Probably,” he says, his breathing heavy and labored and they haven't even started yet. 

Nolan rests his forehead on the mattress next to Claude’s, trying to talk himself down a little, but then Claude’s slapping a condom against his chest, and Nolan decides it’s a lost cause. He takes it and puts it on before guiding himself to Claude’s hole. 

“Should I?” he asks, hesitant. 

Claude looks at him with wide eyes and arches his back against the bed. “Please, alpha,” he says. 

Nolan looks at him and listens to him. He holds himself against Claude’s hole and starts pushing in, and he’s so open and wet that it works. The tip of Nolan’s dick slips past Claude’s rim easily, and then Nolan starts rocking his hips, working more and more of himself into Claude while Claude pushes into it. 

Nolan looks down at Claude's throat, all stretched out for him, and he’d never, not like this, but maybe Claude can tell. He threads his fingers through Nolan’s hair and drags his head down, pushes Nolan’s face into his neck, where his scent is the strongest. 

Nolan makes a sound, almost inhuman, and licks over Claude’s skin. He works his dick deeper inside Claude, as deep as he can go, and Claude whines, wraps strong legs around Nolan and tries to drag him even closer. 

“Tell me what you want,” he whispers, and Nolan wants Claude. Right now though, he wants so much more. 

“I want - I want to get you - ” he tries, but it’s just too embarrassing to say out loud. 

“You can say it it’s okay,” Claude says easily. He arches his back again, pushes back into Nolan’s thrusts, and Nolan has no idea how Claude can be so confident about this.

“Jesus, Claude,” he mutters against his neck. He takes a breath, and it’s all Claude. “I want to get you pregnant,” Nolan admits quietly. He doesn’t have to look at Claude as he says it, and that makes it easier but not much. 

Honestly, Nolan’s expecting some sort of outrage. Claude is his captain, he has no time for this, but Claude only moans, his hole getting even wetter it almost feels like. He says, “Yeah?” and, “Do you think I’d look good like that?”

Nolan cannot believe he gets to have this. “You’d look so good, baby, all full of me, full of my seed,” he blurts out before he has a chance to get embarrassed again. 

Claude makes another sound, his hands tightening in Nolan’s hair. “Keep going,” he mutters. He sounds close already, so gone. 

“I’d fuck you over and over, make sure my seed took,” Nolan says, his teeth scraping Claude’s neck. “And you’d take it so well. You’d love it.”

“I would,” Claude says, breathless.

It gives Nolan courage to keep going, words spilling out of his mouth on their own accord now. “I’d keep you pregnant all the time, housebound to take care of our kids,” he says, pauses to see how it will land. 

Claude goes tight around him in response, a series of pleads leaving his lips.

Nolan keeps going. “You’d have to quit, just stay home all day to take care of our family,” he says. He goes to move his hand between them, jerk Claude off, but Claude holds Nolan’s hand in place. 

“I can get there,” he says, like this isn’t already the hottest night of Nolan’s life.

“Jesus,” Nolan breathes out. He kisses Claude’s throat all over, keeps at it. “You’d make the best husband, so devoted. Always there to take care of our kids, take care of me,” he says. He wants to say more, so much more, but it can all be summed up into one sentence, so he says that. 

“My perfect omega,” he says, and that gets Claude over the edge, makes him go incredibly tight around Nolan as he comes between them, nothing on his dick. 

“Alpha,” he keeps saying, and Nolan kisses his throat, the most intimate part of him. 

“Come in me,” Claude goes on, and Nolan can’t possibly say no to that. He keeps fucking Claude, too hard, probably, but it only takes a handful of thrust before he’s coming, inside the condom but inside Claude too, in a way.

They don’t knot because Clayde may be close to heat but his scent is not strong enough yet, but they do stay together for a minute or two. Nolan goes soft inside Claude, and Claude sighs when he finally pulls out. 

Nolan walks over the bathroom to throw away the condom, and Claude snorts when he comes back empty handed. “Not even a towel?” he asks, but he’s smiling. 

Nolan is still feeling pretty shaky from everything that’s slipped out of his mouth, so he makes his way over to the bed in slow steps and kneels between Claude’s legs. He bends down and drags his tongue through the mess on Claude’s stomach, all the while looking up at him. 

“Will this work?” Nolan asks, chin resting on Claude’s hip. 

Claude looks down at him with wide eyes. He says, “Gonna have to try a bit harder than this,” so Nolan does. He licks up Claude’s come from his stomach, makes sure he’s all clean, and then he moves to his dick, licks that clean too. 

Claude is breathing hard the whole time, fingers moving through Nolan’s hair. He looks down at Nolan, his abs trembling as Nolan’s tongue swipes over them. 

“Turn around,” Nolan tells him, once Claude’s stomach is clean. 

“Oh my god,” Claude says, but he does as Nolan instructed and rolls over onto his stomach. 

The backs of Claude’s thighs are slick and shiny and his hole, when Nolan spreads his cheeks, red and used and sloppy. Nolan holds Claude spread just to feel his squirm, and then he leans in and works on his thighs, licks up the slick there. 

Once Claude’s thighs are clean, Nolan holds him open and works on his hole, broad swipes of his tongue over the sensitive skin. Claude writhes, hips jerking with each new touch, so Nolan throws an arm over his waist and holds him down. 

Claude’s hole is fucked open and even wetter now, so Nolan can’t help pushing his tongue inside, gently, to see how Claude will take it. Claude moans against the bed, hips working to rub himself off against the mattress, so Nolan keeps at it. He fucks Claude with his tongue until Claude is getting more slick than Nolan can lick up, and then he gives up and fucks him with his fingers. 

It’s teasing, shallow, and soon enough Claude is muttering curses under his breath, arching his back to get Nolan to go faster. “Nolan, come on,” he keeps saying, and Nolan feels like the best alpha in the world. He fucks Claude with four fingers, deep and hard, and makes Claude come like that. 

Claude’s scent and his taste have gotten Nolan hard again, and he wraps a hand around his dick but then he gets a look at Claude’s thighs and thinks better of it. “Can I fuck your thighs?” he asks instead, voice already rough. 

Claude chuckles, though he sounds out of breath. He brings his legs together and stretches out, an invitation. Nolan’s heart beats in his throat as he straddles Claude’s ass, and then he chokes on his breath when he pushes his dick between Claude’s thighs. 

“Don’t go inside,” Claude tells him, with the tip of Nolan’s dick catches on his rim. He sounds serious, more serious than he has any right to be, and Nolan runs a gentle hand over his side. 

“I won’t,” he promises. 

Claude’s thighs are tight, and wet with Claude’s slick, so Nolan doesn’t have to work for it too hard. He thrusts lazily, and Claude arches into it, encouraging. Nolan leans over him, at some point, his mouth to Claude’s neck, and Claude tilts his head to the side to give Nolan better access. 

Nolan doesn’t use his teeth, just his lips, but the scent there is so trong, it’s enough to get him there. When he finally comes, it’s quiet, an afterthought to how close they are. Nolan lies on top of Claude after, and Claude tolerates for a couple of minutes before he starts grumbling. 

“Okay, I’m moving.” Nolan kisses Claude’s throat and rolls off him but doesn’t go far, just lays on the bed next to him. 

Claude turns his head out the side to meet Nolan’s eyes but doesn’t bother otherwise moving. “You got me dirty again,” he says. 

Nolan chuckles. His heart is beating hard, thinking about all the things he just said to Claude. “You’ll survive,” he says, but he sounds choked up.

Claude frowns. He rests his hand on Nolan’s chest. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” Nolan breathes out but that’s a bit shaky. He wonders - Claude must know he didn’t mean any of that. Nolan doesn’t want Claude to think of him as a knothead or a heat-crazed alpha, doesn’t want him to think that Nolan actually wants to get him to quit hockey and carry his children. God, Nolan is nineteen, he isn’t even thinking about kids. 

“I didn't mean that,” he finally blurts out, because he needs Claude to know.

Claude looks at him like he doesn't understand.

“I don’t want you to quit hockey,” Nolan clarifies, and it feels stupid to say out loud. 

Claude’s eyes grow wide with understanding. He rolls over with a sigh. “I know you don’t,” he says. “It’s a fantasy, you don’t have to apologize for it.”

Nolan tries to take that in, but he still feels guilty. “The things I said - they didn’t other you?” he asks. 

Claude sighs again. “I knew you didn’t mean them, so. No,” he says easily. “Besides,” he goes on, “I was into it to.”

Nolan lets out a breath. He shifts closer to Claude and closer still, until Claude gets the message and wraps his arm around Nolan’s shoulders. “Your heat is coming up?” he asks. 

“Scheduled for the bye week,” he says. 

“Isn’t that a bit unfair?” Nolan asks. “Are you gonna get any rest?” Ruts only occur once a year, and Nolan has his during the offseason, but it’s different for omegas. They cycle twice, so at least once is during the season. 

Claude huffs. “Lots of things aren’t fair about being an omega in the NHL,” he says. His words are a little sharp, but his arm tightens around Nolan’s shoulders at the same time.  

Nolan knows that, but he is suddenly overcome with protectiveness for Claude. He knows it’s wrong, probably unwanted because they aren’t in a relationship, but he can’t shove it down. He shifts closer to im and puts his nose in Claude’s throat again. 

Claude can probably see right through it. He chuckles, then says, “You gonna fight someone for me?”

Nolan sits up. He’s not much of a fighter. “Anyone,” he says. 

Claude smiles. He leans up and kisses Nolan. “I’ll keep it mind,” he says. 

+

They lie together for a bit and then Claude kicks Nolan out, naturally, because a nap is okay but spending the night is off limits. Nolan’s feeling pretty drained, and he thinks some time away from Claude and his scent might even be good, so he doesn’t mind. 

He thinks it’s a bit weird how Claude walks him to the door, but he doesn't mind that either. At least not until Claude halts by the door and says, “Listen,” in this tone like Nolan’s doomed. 

“Yes?” Nolan says, a bit questioning. He’s not sure why but he wants to preemptively wince. 

“Um,” Claude starts, awkward, and Nolan doesn’t see this much. He wants to each out, so he does, takes a step closer to Claude and puts a hand on Claude’s shoulder. 

“I wouldn't do this, usually, but I was wondering if you had any plans for the bye week?” Claude asks, all in a rush, and Nolan gets it then. 

“No,” he says quickly, because Claude still looks nervous and Nolan doesn’t like it. 

“That’s - I - ” Claude breathes out. He meets Nolan’s eyes and Nolan nods. 

“I’ll be here,” he says, and gets to watch Claude's shoulders drop in relief.

“Thank you,” Claude says. 

Nolan smiles. His heart thumps in his throat. He leans down and kisses Claude, once. 

+

They head into the bye week on a three game win streak, which has them all feeling good about themselves. Claude is third in league scoring, and Nolan is proud of him for that. 

After the game against the Sabres, the last before they bye week, Claude and Nolan head to Claude's together. It's not a long drive but it feels that way, with Claude’s heat ready scent filling up the entire car. 

“I've never - ” Claude starts at some point, and Nolan waits him out but nothing comes after. 

“Never what?” he asks eventually, quiet because Claude looks nervous, about ready to bolt. 

“My heat,” Claude explains. “I've never spent it with another alpha,” he says. 

Nolan is surprised and his face probably doesn't hide it. Claude could have anyone he wanted, surely there is no shortage if alphas who want to be with him, especially during heat. “Really?” he can't help but ask, and it comes out sounding a little foolish. 

Nolan is expecting some sarcastic remark as he's come to get accustomed to from Claude, but Claude says, “I'm not exactly easy to get along with.”

Nolan frowns. He thinks Claude is a bit grumpy, but he wouldn't say this. Before he has time a chance to argue though Claude speaks up again. 

“Anyway,” he says, shutting the subject down. “My heats last about three days. This one will probably start tomorrow but - ” he cuts himself off, takes a breath. 

“Your scent helps,” he says, sounding shy. Nolan's not sure what to do with that. Claude is usually so confident, about everything. “So if you don't have plans for tonight…” Claude trails off. 

“Oh, absolutely,” Nolan says, and means,  _ anything you need _ .

What Claude needs, turns out, is to lie with Nolan. Nolan finds this a bit of a strange request but goes with it, because it's not like he’s going to turn down cuddling with Claude. So Nolan wraps his arm around Claude’s shoulders and lets Claude rest his head on his chest, and feels ten feet tall suddenly, when he can smell Claude’s contentment in the air. 

“Can I scent you?” Claude asks, after a few minutes. His voice is soft, a rumble against Nolan’s chest. 

Nolan’s never done that before, never felt close enough to someone to give them permission. But he wants Claude to feel good, now, and they are close. Nolan remembers how he’d felt when Claude had let him do that, the other day, and he wants Claude to feel like that because of him all the time. 

“Sure,” he says. He presses his nose to the top of Claude’s head and then tilts his head away, allowing for better access. 

The first touch of Claude’s nose to Nolan’s throat makes him jump, but Claude is breathing so slow, and his touch is gentle. He smells good, smells like everything Nolan’s ever wanted. Nolan relaxes. He lets Claude breathe him in, and then lets Claude lie half on top of him too, and it feels good. 

It feels warm, the pressure and Claude’s scent, and Nolan goes to sleep like that, with his game day suit still half on and Claude Giroux scenting him. 

+

Nolan wakes up too early the next morning to Claude shaking him awake. Nolan’s eyes are unfocused, at first, but then they zero in on Claude, take in his flushed face and his naked chest, and he figures this is what heat is. He takes a breath, then another one, but they only make him dizzy, aroused. 

“Nolan,” Claude is saying, his fingers gripping Nolan’s shoulders. 

“What is it?” Nolan asks. “What do you need?” He’s never done this before, and suddenly he feels all too aware of it, of his inexperience. He doesn’t want to mess this up. 

Claude looks at him. His eyes are hazy. He says, “Touch me,” and his voice is rough, demanding. 

Nolan pushes on his shoulder, rolls them over and straddles him. Claude’s breath leaves him in a rush, but it sounds like relief. It gives Nolan the confidence he needs to reach out and touch Claude’s stomach, his flushed chest and his nipples. 

“Come on,” Claude groans, leaning up to catch Nolan’s lips in a kiss. That’s demanding, too, and rough, Claude’s teeth scraping Nolan’s lip, and Nolan’s stomach goes all tight. 

Claude is leaking, Nolan can smell it, and his dick is hard, Nolan can feel that, so he rubs off against him, grinds his clothed erection against Claude’s naked one. It must chafe, Nolan realizes, but Claude only pushes into it, squirming under Nolan as he tries to get closer to him. 

“I’ll take care of you,” Nolan tells him, and he means it. He keeps pressing up against him, and this is not enough to get Nolan there but it’s working for Claude, his dick getting Nolan’s slacks wet as they move together. 

Claude is frantic, reaching for Nolan and pulling him closer and closer where there’s no closer to get. He grabs at the buttons of Nolan’s shirt and then whines when he can’t get them open, so Nolan leans back and undoes them himself them, shrugs off his shirt. He leaves his pants on, which Claude takes offense to, apparently, clumsy fingers trying to work on Nolan’s belt buckle. 

“I got you,” Nolan tells him. He rocks against him, and that seems to do it for a while, has Claude leaning back against the mattress and letting Nolan do all of the work. 

“Fuck me,” Claude says after a moment. He sounds pleading, and Nolan doesn’t like that in this context, not when Claude is hurting to be filled. 

He says, “I will, I will, baby,” moves his hips harder against Claude’s until Claude is whimpering, his dick red and probably aching. “Just give it up for me now, take the edge off,” Nolan keeps going, and maybe Claude needed to hear it because he comes then, coating Nolan’s slacks with it. 

“Good, you’re so good,” Nolan tells him, senseless with it. He leans down to kiss Claude’s lax mouth and Claude arches against him, his dick still hard. 

“I want you,” Claude says, “Now,” and Nolan never had much patience when it came to Claude anyway. 

He gets up and takes off his pants, then reaches for the condoms on the nightstand. He grabs the lube, too, for good measure, before kneeling back between Claude’s legs. Claude starts touching right away, Nolan’s arms and his shoulders, then his back, nails digging in, and Nolan has a hard time focusing. 

He’s hard, so hard, from Claude’s scent and just Claude in general, but he gets the condom on and pushes two fingers inside Claude, working him open. He doesn’t really need to; Claude is so wet and loose that his hole feels sloppy with it, but they have three days of this ahead of them, Nolan doesn’t want to take any chances. 

“Please,” Claude keeps saying, and Nolan keeps hating it so he tries to be efficient but quick, adding one finger and then two. 

Nolan has four fingers inside Claude when Claude says, “Please, alpha,” and Nolan just has to pull his fingers out then, take hold of his dick. 

Claude moans, deep and long, when Nolan finally pushes into him, and he feels so relaxed under Nolan. Nolan stays inside him for a moment, until Claude’s nails start scratching Nolan’s back, and then he starts moving, fucking Claude slow and then not so much. 

Nolan can feel his knot forming at the base of his dick, can feel it catching on Claude’s rim every time he pulls out. Claude moans each time it happens, eyes squeezed shut and head thrown back. He comes like that, once, but that doesn’t seem to help at all. 

His fingers keep pressing into Nolan’s muscles, hard enough to sting, and Nolan thrusts until he can’t anymore, until his knot grows too big. He starts rocking his hips then, moving a tiny bit at a time, coaxing another oragsm out of Claude. 

Claude’s stomach is a mess with come now, and Nolan runs his fingers through it, starts burning it into Claude’s skin. Claude moans at that too, clenching down on Nolan’s knot, and Nolan is so close. He moves to press his nose into Claude’s neck and comes, his knot growing enough to keep them tied together. 

Nolan’s breathing hard, after, and Claude is too, but he pulls back just enough to push Claude’s hair out of his face. “Is it better now?” he asks, because he feels terrible when he’s in rut, he just wants to make this better for Claude. 

Claude tries to smile but it comes out tight. “You’re doing good,” he just tells Nolan. His thighs tremble against Nolan’s sides.

Nolan takes that with a grain of salt. He can do better. He looks down between them, and Claude’s dick has grown a little soft but not much. Nolan takes a breath and starts moving his hips again, working his knot inside Claude. It hurts a little because he’s still sensitive, but it doesn’t take much before Claude is coming again, almost dry now. 

Claude is less tense after, so Nolan kisses him. Claude feels so warm, and he’s sweaty. They stay tied for a while, just touching each other, and by the time Nolan’s knot goes down and he pulls out of Claude, Claude is aching to be filled again. 

Nolan still makes them stop long enough to drink some fluids, and then he rolls Claude over and fingers him until he comes again. Fingering works for a while until it doesn’t, and Nolan has to fuck Claude again to get him to come down from it a little. 

They knot again, twice, long enough each time for Nolan’s dick to start feeling sensitive. Nolan thinks it must twice as bad for Claude, so he uses too much lube and tries not to move too much, but it’s hard when Claude keeps squirming against him, trying to take him deeper. 

Nolan tries to jerk him to give him so relief, but Claude bats his hand away. “Just fuck me,” he says, bossy, and Nolan kisses his shoulder and does. 

He eats Claude out after, giving both of them a break. Claude seems to like that. He works his ass back into Nolan’s face and squirms against the sheets, comes twice like that before he goes lax. 

He sleeps for a while after that, and so does Nolan. They wake up at the same time, like their instincts are locked together now, and Nolan fucks Claude on his hands and knees once, then on their sides. 

Nolan’s knot doesn’t swell, and Claude keeps writhing on his dick, desperate, and Nolan doesn’t know how to help him. He just holds him close and pushes a finger inside Claude alongside his dick, apologizes over and over because he’s supposed to be doing more here. 

“I’m sorry,” he keeps saying, and then he looks at Claude hurting and blurts out, “I love you.” He wants to regret it, he really does, but the words make Claude moan, not entirely miserable. 

Nolan keeps saying it, his arms tight around Claude. He works another finger inside Claude, and that seems to do it, has him going so tight around Nolan as he comes. 

Claude rolls over and shoves his face into Nolan’s neck after, tongue licking over the sweat there, and maybe, just maybe, Nolan thinks, he’s not alone in this feeling. 

+

The next two days are miserable for Nolan, and even worse for Claude. They have more sex than Nolan ever thought possible, and in between Nolan tries his best to keep them both hydrated and keep them from starving. He even manages to get them to shower once, though the whole deteriorates into sex pretty quickly. 

Nolan’s dick feels raw, by the end of it, and knotting makes him wince, but he does it anyway, for Claude, because it’s the only thing that seems to work. Claude whines taking it, but the sounds he makes are even worse when he’s empty. Nolan tries to soothe him anyway, with his words and his touches and his tongue. 

Thankfully, Claude’s heat ends as it started, right on time. They go to sleep after knotting, both exhausted, and Nolan wakes up the next morning to an empty bed. He panics for a moment, still riding solely on instincts, but Claude comes out of the shower a minute later, towel wrapped around his hips and hair wet. 

“Good morning,” he says. His voice is so rough, and he looks exhausted.

Nolan blinks. The room is a mess, and when he breathes, the air reeks. “You feeling alright?” he still asks, too awake. 

Claude sighs. He makes his way over to the bed in slow steps and then sits down softly. Nolan moves his legs to make room for him, and Claude shifts closer. “Hormones,” he explains.

Nolan hates how out of his depth he feels. He doesn’t know if it’s instincts or feelings, figures it’s a mixture of both, but he just wants to fix this. He says, “Wanna cuddle?” and hopes he’s not missing this by a mile. 

Claude looks at him and smiles. Then he dumps the towel and gets under the disgusting covers. He curls up to Nolan and pushes his nose into Nolan’s neck. “You stink,” he decides. 

Nolan wraps his arm around Claude’s shoulders, pulls him closer. “I can go shower,” he suggests. 

Claude just moves closer to him, clingy. “No,” he says, leaving no room for argument. Not that Nolan was going to raise one in the first place.

+

They stay in bed until they get too hungry, at which point Claude has Nolan order takeout for them, claiming he should be providing for them. Nolan laughs out loud at that one and says, “I bet you’ve never let anyone provide for you once in your entire adult life.”

Claude makes a vague sound but his face looks pinched, and Nolan decides it may be too early for jokes. He kisses Claude instead and orders too much junk food for them. 

They eat on Claude’s couch, the TV playing in the background, filling up the space. Claude feeds Nolan fries, which messes with Nolan’s pride, a little, until he realizes there’s no dynamic behind it, just Claude being Claude. He ends up eating the fries and licking the salt from Claude’s fingers. 

After, they change the sheets on the bed and go shower together. Nothing happens - they’re both still too tired for it - but once they get in bed Claude lies half on top of Nolan and scents him again, covering Nolan in his scent. 

Nolan doesn’t fight it, which prompts Claude to ask, “You don’t mind this?” all soft and sleepy.

Nolan thinks maybe he would, a few weeks ago. Maybe if it were anyone else doing it to him he’d mind. But this is Claude, and Nolan - well, Nolan loves him, he  _ wants  _ to have Claude’s scent on his skin. 

“No,” he says.

Claude hums and links their fingers together. 

+

All in all, Nolan thinks it goes pretty well. He’s riding high as he ubers back to his place, still smelling of Claude, and can’t help but think about Claude smelling of him too. It’s a nice feeling, and it lasts all through the rest of the day, until he gets to the rink for practice the next morning and Claude - he just ignores Nolan. 

Claude walks past him without saying anything, and even on the ice he won’t look at Nolan. Nolan feels it like a punch to the throat. His face heats, ears burning with it, and he feels humiliated. 

He can’t help but think of all the worst case scenarios, but none of them fit, because Claude was fine just yesterday. More than fine, even. The bye week was probably some of the best days of Nolan’s life, and he just thought - foolishly, maybe - that it would be the same for Claude. 

Still, Nolan can’t leave it like this, so he catches up to Claude as he’s walking to his car, and asks, as casually as he can, if everything is okay. 

Claude looks at him like he doesn’t understand. “Yeah, everything’s good,” he says, easy with it. 

Nolan doesn’t get it. “Because you didn’t - ” he starts, cuts himself off. Nolan swallows and Claude breathes out. 

“Listen,” he says, sounding abruptly tired. Nolan hates it. “I just - I need some space, after heats,” he explains. 

All at once, Nolan feels the tension he’s been carrying around since this morning leave him in a rush. He gets it now, and it wasn’t even as bad as he was thinking. “Right!” he says quickly. “That’s totally cool, I was just a little worried,” he admits. 

Claude smiles, a small thing, and Nolan wants to kiss him. “It’s all good,” Claude says. 

“We - we’re good, too, right?” Nolan can’t help but ask. 

Claude is quiet for a moment, and Nolan’s heart beats in his throat. “Yeah, we’re good,” Claude finally says. 

“Great,” Nolan says, needless. He looks for something to keep the conversation going, but Claude just pats him on the shoulder and gets in his car. He drives off, and Nolan isn’t sure why but he feels cold all over. 

+

Maybe Nolan underestimated what space meant, by Claude’s standards, because a week passes, games blending together, and Claude still isn’t talking to Nolan. Nolan tries not to take it personally, but Claude is a wreck. He looks pale and withdrawn and he won’t even look at Nolan, and Nolan thinks there’s no way that somehow  _ isn’t  _ on him. 

Nolan wants to talk to Claude again, but he’s not sure he should. Claude asked for space, after all, so there’s nothing left for Nolan but to wait him out. He waits another week, and then another after that, but it doesn’t seem to matter. Three weeks after Claude’s heat Claude still refuses to acknowledge him, sits as far away from Nolan when they go out as he can, and it  _ hurts  _ Nolan. 

He can’t help but think about all the time Claude and he spent together, how they made cookies and watched TV and shared a bed, and feels robbed. Nolan thinks it’s just plain unfair, and it is that thought that gets him to drive to Claude's too late one night, has him praying Claude will let him up. 

Claude does. He lets Nolan up to his floor but not inside his apartment, and Nolan feels that like a punch too. He sounds pleading when he says, “Just tell me what I did.”

Claude looks at him for a moment, uncomprehending, before it crumbles down and he just looks sad. “You didn’t do anything,” he says. 

Nolan thought he’d feel relief. He just feels worse, empty inside. “Then what’s wrong?” he asks, and his voice is sharp. 

Claude breathes out. He steps aside and lets Nolan inside finally, says, “Let’s not do this in the hallway.”

Nolan follows him and tries not to think of all the other time he followed Claude. “Tell me,” he says, because he is sure, he really is, if he can just pinpoint what is wrong then he’ll be able to fix it. 

Claude is just - quiet, he’s quiet, for the longest time. Nolan can see him thinking, and he just prays Claude tells him the truth this time. “I’m just not made for this,” Claude finally blurts out, and Nolan - he doesn’t know what to do with that, he doesn’t know what it means. 

“Made for what?” he asks, gentle because Claude looks about ready to bolt, from the other side of the kitchen counter. 

Claude breathes out. He meets Nolan’s eyes and says, like it explains everything, “You told me you loved me,” and it explains nothing. 

“I do love you,” he tries, because it’s the truth. 

“Nolan,” Claude just says, and for the longest time nothing comes after it. Then, he says, “You’re nineteen.”

Nolan - he somehow knew it would come back to this. He’s prepared for it. His chest puffs out and his back straightens, and he asks, “So?”

“You don’t really want this,” Claude says. “You don't want to be straddled to a bossy omega for the rest of your life.”

Nolan stares at him. He doesn’t even know where to start with that. “Have I literally ever objected to you bossing me around?” he finally goes with.

Claude, like it hits close to home for him, flinches. 

Nolan keeps on. “I’ve never objected. I like it, and besides,” he goes on, “I’m not asking you to bond.” He keeps his voice soft, walks around the counter to Claude. Claude doesn’t move away, and Nolan will take that as a win. 

“I’m just…” Nolan tries, the words suddenly difficult. “I’m only asking you on a date, okay?” he decides.

Claude looks up at him, holds Nolan’s gaze. He looks - Nolan thinks he looks hopeful, and it tears him up inside that Claude might want this but thinks he doesn’t deserve it or something perverse like that. 

“I love you,” he says again, and it’s even better when he doesn’t have heat clouding his mind. “Go out on a date with me.”

Claude looks at him for the longest moment and then he shakes his head. He’s smiling. “Jesus, you just never give up,” he says. 

Noan lets out a breath, two. “You’re worth it,” he says, and that’s honest too.

Claude smiles again, this time while looking at Nolan. “Okay,” he says. Then, “Only if you promise not to cook for me.”

It surprises a laugh out of Nolan, and he shakes his head. “Yeah, okay, I can do that.”

“It’s a deal then,” Claude says. He’s smiling so wide, and Nolan has missed it so much. He takes a step closer to Claude and dips down, catches his lips in a kiss, and thinks,  _ anything for you _ . Means it too.

**Author's Note:**

> i'm on twitter @hearteyesmofo where i get really excited and bang my fist on the table :))


End file.
